


fervid as a flame

by itjustcantbe



Category: Sorted (Website) RPF
Genre: Blind Date, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, First Dates, First Kiss, M/M, it would be slow burn if i were a more patient writer, its one or both of those
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 14:11:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17726714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itjustcantbe/pseuds/itjustcantbe
Summary: “Seriously Mike, shut up. So we set them up on a blind date, really sell it to them, which shouldn’t be hard, because they are so completely each other’s types. You two organise that, say it’s to give them a distraction from the office drama. I’ll help Ben out with finding a good restaurant to send them to. From there I figure we have three outcomes. Outcome one is they show up and realise what we’ve done and leave straight away. But two or three, they go there, stay for at least some of a date, and then either fight it out or fuck it out. Either way, tension will be gone.”“I hate to say it,” Ben says, breaking the moments of silence that follow Barry’s explanation, “but that isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”aka. the enemies to lovers jamesie fic that barely got asked for and is nonetheless my longest fic





	fervid as a flame

**Author's Note:**

> title from 'what is this feeling' from wicked which inspired this whole mess
> 
> thanks to the discord of course for tolerating basically writing half this fic for me, i hope its worth the wait. i hope y'all enjoy it, this is probably the most effort ive put into writing something in a Hot Minute if not ever, and its certainly longer than my standard. here we go

To say that Jamie and James had gotten off on the wrong foot would be putting it lightly. It had stemmed from their first meeting, James getting to the studio halfway through Jamie and Ben filming a video. Barry welcomed him in, showing him to a desk that he could get set up at, and giving him a notebook with a few of their recipe lab ideas that he could start researching. It was hard, in all honesty, for him not to get distracted by the video being filmed, what with Jamie’s outrageous laughs and jokes every few minutes. 

James regretted not bringing headphones within five minutes. He could hear Ben laughing every few minutes, and another voice - Barry? he wonders- laughing along with them, while telling Jamie to stop ruining the takes. Once they finish filming they call out greetings and introductions from the kitchen, Ben clearing up and Barry rewatching footage. They get a few more videos filmed, Barry and Mike swapping out for who’s filming and holding mics and making sure the lighting is okay.

They take turns in being in a few videos, and it’s hard to not notice that when Jamie isn’t in a video he tends to just be trusted with a mic or helping hold lighting in place. It does get grating after a while, and though James tries to fight it, he can’t help but start to resent Jamie, without whose loud jokes, James’ lack of headphones could almost be tolerable. 

He manages to distract himself by the time all the filming is over, adding onto recipe ideas that are in the notebook and doing a few google searches, adding some ideas and elaborations of his own. Ben sits down on the spare seat beside him. 

“How are you finding it, James?” 

“It’s good, lots of ideas to work off of.” He lifts the notebook to indicate. “Looking forward to planning some of these out better and maybe trying a few soon.”

“Sounds good to me. How are you finding everyone else?” 

“Mike was nice, haven’t spoken to Barry much,” James admits. 

“And Jamie?”

James tries (and fails) to keep his expression neutral as he answers this one. 

“I mean, he’s funny, but is that it?” James asks, only feeling confident enough to do so as he saw Jamie leave to get coffees a few minutes earlier. He’d hardly say it in front of the man. 

Ben’s eyebrows furrow nonetheless. “What do you mean?”

“So you’re the chef, so am I now, I suppose. Mike does editing and can film, and music too, Barry can film and do photography, is Jamie just the funny guy who gets to tag along because of the whole school mate thing? No disrespect intended, just asking.”

Even so, it is harsher than the kind of thing James would normally say, fueled by his frustrations at the ceaseless laughter, and bad sleep the night before, not that he would try to excuse it. It is bad sleep that makes him slightly less aware of his surroundings, which is how Jamie walks in halfway through James speaking without James noticing and stopping, even as he sees the grimace on Ben’s face. 

“Jamie does more behind the scenes stuff,” Ben explains. 

Jamie walks behind the pair, putting a coffee down for Ben without looking at him and taking the remaining three to his, Mike’s, and Barry’s desks. 

“Any sponsorships is Jamie’s hard work, deals with brands and any publicity that sorted gets, he also helps with fan interactions and keeping people engaged online with our content.” Ben’s tone of voice is slightly pushy, and louder than normal, making a point to both ensure that James understands that Jamie’s job is key, but also that Jamie hears too, to know that he doesn’t share James’ point of view. 

James gives a nod. Ordinarily he’d try apologise to Jamie, but even with all that, somehow it just makes him find the man more frustrating - if he’s so intelligent and talented, why would he waste his time making cheap jokes? 

Hearing James say that certainly didn’t help with the impression Jamie had that the younger man was up himself and pretentious. 

He spoke calmly to Mike, who would note on the passive-aggressiveness of having this conversation within earshot of James, who admittedly did have headphones on this time around, but even so could likely hear. 

“So, I understand needing a chef to balance out the… not chef in the studio, someone to help Ben and then channel, make the ratio better, okay, I get that,” Jamie began. 

Mike nods, not wanting to stop him from venting out any frustration - he had also heard James’ comment on his first day, which meant that he felt Jamie was in his rights to have a few complaints of his own. 

“But why James?” 

“What do you mean?” Mike glances back at his computer screen for a moment, seeing how much longer the video needed to render for. That would be an easy out to the conversation if the complaints got a little too workplace unfriendly. 

“I mean he’s pretentious, right off the bat, like, Ben’s a chef, but James is a chef. Which doesn’t even make sense, I mean, Ben did the same course as he did, for all we know with better grades, and then has been out of school for longer. If we need a chef that badly, why not hire someone with more experience than Ben, not less?” 

Mike shrugs. “I trust Ben’s judgement.”

“I’m not saying I don’t,” Jamie says. “I’m just waiting for him to be less annoying or whatever.” 

“Wait, is it annoying or pretentious that’s the main complaint?”

“Both. Which is worse.”

Mike looks down and shakes his head. “Listen, I’m sure James is a talented guy who might just feel a bit awkward joining a group that’s already formed, give him some time to settle in and things will smooth out. My video’s done rendering now too now, so just let me double check that everything’s all good.”

Jamie nods and moves away, sliding his chair across back to his own desk, opening his emails to see if he has missed anything important throughout the day. 

Mike’s prediction, or hope as it may have been, doesn’t come true as the weeks pass, with both James and Jamie ceaselessly annoying each other. Jamie starts not going out for drinks with the others when he knows that James is going, and James buys himself a soundproof pair of headphones, making a point of putting them on when Jamie is the one filming with Ben.

Their complaints continue too, Jamie complaining to Mike about James’ alleged pretentiousness, talking about his standoffishness in a way as though it’s a deliberate decision to deliberately piss Jamie off, and James complaining to Ben, wishing that Jamie would be just a little bit more sensible, maybe shut up for ten minutes, let them go through one video without making a mess or a fool of himself. Barry caught bits and pieces too, off handed remarks from Jamie about how all chefs (“except lovely Ebbers”) are infuriating wankers, and compliments that ring of passive aggressiveness when James says how good it is that he and Mike can make it through filming videos while being funny but also intelligent - it’s hard not to notice that both of these events happen regularly, and only when in earshot of the other. 

Mike and Ben, who bear the brunt of the complaints, do get sick of it quickly. It is the constant complaints in addition to the energy that it gives their office that really made them unhappy. It is only after Jamie admits for the first time that one of James’ recipes, one conceived of, workshopped, and labbed by James himself, is good, and when James first laughs at one of Jamie’s dumb jokes that the tone of complaint shifts slightly. 

“I get it, Jay, he annoys you.”

Phrasing it like that is half bait (that Mike hopes Jamie wouldn’t legitimately rise to) to get him to continue complaining, but also (if Jamie recognises the bait as such) a warning to be quiet, a hint to take the high road a little. The annoyance in question this time is barely a complaint, just Jamie coming over to Mike’s desk to say James’ name with a disgruntled tone and sigh. He doesn’t elaborate on what the complaint of the day is - it could be anything from him cooking something Jamie doesn’t like to him cooking something Jamie does like, and anything in between. 

Jamie opens his mouth as if to speak, and it is as though Mike could see the gears turning in his head as he thought better of it. 

“I have to go check my emails,” Jamie says, an excuse of shrugging himself out of the situation and back to his own desk. 

He frowns to himself, putting his headphones back on to block out the distractions of the others. 

On the other end of the desks, in the test kitchen, James is having a similar conversation with Ben, in equally hushed tones so that the noise wouldn’t spread. 

“I mean, okay, he’s funny, but not everything has to be funny,” James says. 

Ben hums in response, not even looking up from the ganache he is making. 

“Ben, I’m serious.”

“It’s hard to not notice that,” Ben replies, looking up enough to give James a slight smirk. “Listen, I know that there’s a lot of banter, lots of humour that goes on here, but it doesn’t mean he’s not capable of being serious.”

James gives a slight huff. “Pecans or walnuts?” he asks as he took a knife from the knife block. 

Ben pauses from his ganache for a moment, looking at James while he weighs up the choices. 

“Go with pecans for now, I think.”

Pouring some pecans out of a jar onto his chopping board, James nods, before roughly chopping them up. 

Later on from there, where James makes a point of cooking things that he knows Jamie will like, and when Jamie has jokes that James will like down to a tee, and James is getting legitimately impressed with some of the sponsorships and collaborations that Jamie organisations, the tone of complaints shifts again. This shift is somehow worse, certainly awkward for the others as they realise what’s going on. 

“Oh, look at me, I’m a chef, I went to culinary school and I’m 6’4 and Scottish,” Jamie says, sing-songy voice clearly a shoddy impression of James’ accent. 

Jamie and Mike are doing what feels like endless paperwork, a chore made only even more difficult given the fact that the two chefs and Barry have gone out to visit some restaurants in the area that they’d been invited to. Making the job even harder for Mike was that Jamie is apparently barely able to shut up about James the whole time they’d been doing it. 

“Like Mike, I know I’m a nice guy -”

“Debatable,” Mike interjects, earning him a swat on the side of the head from Jamie. 

“In all seriousness. I’m nice, I get along with people, I’m funny, but when I see James, I just get so angry, as though I legitimately hate the man. My hands shake and my heart starts racing, and all I can think about is the fact that he’s right there in front of me.”

“And you take that to mean that you hate him?”

Jamie sputters. “Well what else could it mean?”

Although Mike shrugs, the expression on his face indicates that he has more thoughts on the situation than he is letting on. 

It’s the same thing that Ben and Barry are noticing, though unable to comment on, as they spend the day with James. 

“So Jamie is just too funny, that’s the problem. He shouldn’t be able to make me laugh that easily, I’m supposed to be this stoic cool guy, and I really can’t do that if he’s out there being that funny,” James rambles. 

Barry raises an eyebrow. “So, you want Jamie to try tone down the … humour?” 

“Yes? No… I don’t know. It’s just, so annoying, like, you look at him, and you can’t not smile, especially if he’s smiling, I mean, it’s just a joke.”

“Which you want him to stop?” Ben asks. 

“Shut up,” James says in a huff. 

In the end it’s Barry who caves, sick of catches bits and pieces of each side of the complaints, especially when they become so clearly not complaints. 

(“Why is James trying to cook steak dishes all the time now? Who is that supposed to impress?”  
A sigh from Mike. “Jamie, I can only assume it’s supposed to impress you.”  
“Well it’s not working.”

“Jamie’s smile just, lights up the room? I mean, who can do that, it’s unreasonable.”  
A sigh from Ben. “Please tell me this isn’t actually a legitimate complaint.”  
“Uhh…”)

Barry sends a quick text to Mike and Ben - “drinks @mine 2night 6pm-ish, DONT tell James and Jamie”. 

It’s enough to get the attention of the other two, and assuming it has something to do with resolving the situation that the lot of them have grown tired of, sure enough, as 6pm rolls around Ben walks in, bag of crisps in hand. 

“We can have these while we wait for for Mike,” Ben remarks, which gets a chuckle out of Barry, but sure enough, it hits quarter to seven, and they’ve eaten most of them by the time the doorbell rings to indicate Mike’s arrival. 

“Nice of you to make an appearance,” Barry says as he opens the door to let Mike in. 

“Hey, only forty minutes late,” Mike says in an attempt to defend himself that is feeble even by his standards. 

“Forty five,” Ben interjects from the living room. 

“I’m here aren’t I?” Mike asks as he follows Barry to go and sit down in the living room, taking the single seat, leaving Barry to sit on the couch beside Ben. 

Barry starts speaking in a voice clearly attempting to be something that would sound more in place in a James Bond movie trying to deal with a spy, not in his living room dealing with their friend. “Now, the mission I’ve called you here for tonight is of utmost importance, it i-” Barry is interrupted from speaking by a light swat to the side of his head from Ben. 

“Okay, so. Mission: get Jamie and James to stop and/or realise that they like each other,” Barry says, the fake accent he’d been putting on for the previous sentence now gone. 

“How are you expecting to do that?” Ben asks. 

Mike looks curious as well, which means the start of the plan is already working better than Barry had hoped. 

“Now hear me out here,” Barry starts. “And you have to listen until I’m finished because otherwise it’ll sound dumb -”

“Here we go,” Mike says with a sigh. 

“No, I said listen. So, a blind date -”

This time Mike’s interruption wasn’t verbal, but instead him breaking out into laughter. 

“Seriously Mike, shut up. So we set them up on a blind date, really sell it to them, which shouldn’t be hard, because they are so completely each other’s types. You two organise that, say it’s to give them a distraction from the office drama. I’ll help Ben out with finding a good restaurant to send them to. From there I figure we have three outcomes. Outcome one is they show up and realise what we’ve done and leave straight away. But two or three, they go there, stay for at least some of a date, and then either fight it out or fuck it out. Either way, tension will be gone.” 

“I hate to say it,” Ben says, breaking the moments of silence that follow Barry’s explanation, “but that isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever heard.” 

Mike has a slight grimace on his face as he nods. “I suppose it’s worth a shot. I’ll start bringing it up with Jamie, and then once you two have a date for the date, I’ll let him know.” 

Jamie is surprisingly easy to talk into the blind date based on the premise alone. 

“So you’re happy to organise it for me?” is his first question. 

“Yeah,” Mike replies. “He’s a great guy, totally your type, I’ll sort out a restaurant for it and tell you when once I’ve got that dealt with.”

Admitting that Ben and Barry are the ones dealing with the booking would almost certainly give the game away. 

“My type, huh?”

“You know, tall, handsome. Bit of an introvert, but also a total nerd, sci fi fan, once you get him talking about something he’s interested in he never shuts up,” Mike says. He focuses on aspects of James that Jamie is unaware of, doing all he can to avoid giving it away without seeming closed off about it. 

“And you know him?” 

“Yeah, friend of a friend, see him a fair bit, really, it’ll be good.”

James is more hesitant about the overall concept of Ben setting him up on a date, and the fact that it’s set to be a blind date doesn’t help a bit. 

“So I’m supposed to trust you to pick someone to go on a date with me?” he asks Ben warily. 

“It’ll be fine, you two will get on well once you get talking.”

“You sound so sure.”

“Trust me. Funny guy, but amazingly intelligent, really caring, he has a great smile and a great laugh,” Ben says. Like Mike, he makes sure not to mention anything that would really give away who the blind date is actually with, describing things that James doesn’t notice in Jamie enough as well as his smile and laugh, which clearly James likes in a guy, considering how often he talks about Jamie’s. 

“Guess I’ll have to trust you,” James says with resignation but a smirk on his face. 

Once they have the two agreements, and the Friday night reservations for the restaurant - a bit of a niche place, mainly classic food done well, unpretentious but still high end enough a place to send a chef and a dedicated foodie - a few weeks have passed, and Barry is almost wishing he had thought of the intervention sooner. 

“Remember James, the booking is under my name.”

“Got it, Ben,” James says as he gets off train that he and Ben get home on together, though a few stations apart.

Mike is giving Jamie similar advice, though still in the studio, having had a lot of work to finish up on that day.

“So Jamie, we booked under Ebbers name, it was easier to get a reservation for him seeings he’s a chef and all, so make sure to check his name.” 

“Will do. Thanks mate.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

And like that, Jamie is out the door, ready to see what the blind date has in store. 

James is running early. That means when Jamie gets to the restaurant and is greeted, says which name the booking is under, he’s told that his date is already there. He is walked to a table and sat across from James. 

They are given the food and drink menus and the waiter leaves, but the silence between them remains for a few of the most awkward moments either of them have ever experienced. 

“I’m guessing Ben set you up on this?” Jamie asks, breaking the silence that feels like it has lasted much longer than it actually has. 

“Yeah. Mike rope you into it?”

“Mhm. May as well make the most of it, I suppose.”

James is kind of impressed with the maturity of that response, and he can’t help but agree. The attention gained from storming out within minutes of a blind date isn’t the level of drama that James wants associated with himself. It’s relatively quiet between the two of them, glancing down at menus and choosing what to order. 

When their waiter returns, they both affirm that they are ready to order. Jamie asks for the steak mignon - completely unsurprisingly - and James is ready to order similarly (already hearing the comment from Ben: “See, more in common than you’d think”) when Jamie speaks again. James only just stops himself from rolling his eyes. 

“James, just realised you’ve got your back to the blackboard,” Jamie says, nodding over James’ shoulder. “The pasta dish sounds like it’s your speed.” 

James is ready to disagree just on instinct, but reading it - a pasta dish with field mushrooms and other seasonal vegetables - it does sound like something he’d enjoy. 

“I’ll have the pasta special, actually,” he says to the waiter, causing Jamie to crack a grin. 

Once they’ve ordered drinks as well and the waiter has left, James gives Jamie a quizzical look. 

“How did you guess I’d like that?”

“I’m insulted that you think I guessed,” Jamie prefaces. “You mentioned a few months ago how much you like all that using seasonal produce and stuff - and that you’re cutting down on meat, so I figured it’d suit you.”

James isn’t sure how to reply to that - he’s genuinely impressed. 

“Thanks, I mean, seriously,” he ends up saying. 

Jamie laughs and for once his laugh brings a smile to James’ face instead of a feeling of frustration. 

“I’ve got good memory for that kind of stuff.”

“That kind of stuff?”

 

“Yeah, you know, the little bits and pieces that people say. On that note, Ben mentioned you like sci-fi?” 

Normally if someone asked James that question it was doubt that geared it, or it was being asked in the hopes of making fun of him, but Jamie seems nothing but genuine to James.

“Yeah, my bookshelf is really just sci fi and cookbooks at this point.”

“Pro chef like you still needs cookbooks?” Jamie asks, the smile on his face indicating how seriously to take the question (not at all). 

“Oi,” James admonishes him. “You know that isn’t how it works.” 

Jamie nods, smile not having fallen from his face. “Got it, got it. Anyway, got any favourites?” 

And from there, it feels like a real first date or blind date, except one where they’re both learning and unlearning things about each other. James is forced to acknowledge to himself how genuinely thoughtful Jamie is, and sees what it is that makes the others see him as integral to the group. Jamie realises that James is just as nerdy as he is pretentious, happy to chat about his favourite books and movies on end, appalled when he hears Jamie hasn’t seen his favourites. 

“Jamie, listen, I’m going to make you watch it with me,” James says, still sounding surprised at the thought of Jamie not having heard of Firefly. 

Jamie swallows the steak in his mouth before replying. “I’m not complaining! I’ll watch it, it’s fine, it’s not on me that I don’t get the daily updates on the ‘James Currie movie recommendations’ blog.”

It’s impossible for James not to laugh at that, a decent laugh by anyone’s standards - it’s the biggest that Jamie has ever seen James laugh for sure. Conversation comes more easy for them than they had thought it would, and as time ticks by, neither of them notice messages on their phones from the rest of the guys. 

Mike >> Jamie (6:28pm)  
remember reservation for 6.30, hope ur there

Ben >> James (6:39pm)  
This wasn’t my idea.  
I did participate, but I didn’t think of it. 

Mike >> Jamie (6:58pm)  
i was expecting to have heard from you by now? gonna assume that means things r ok 

Ben >> James (7:13pm)  
Hope you two havent killed each other? Text me when you’re home

Mike >> Ben (7:15pm)  
u heard from james yet?

Ben >> Mike (7:16pm)  
No. I’m guessing you’ve heard nothing from Jamie?

Mike >> Ben (7:17pm)  
nada. i gotta guess it means either they stormed out the second they saw each other or its going well

Ben >> Mike (7:19pm)  
I’ll try be an optimist and hope for the latter

James and Jamie finish their meals, carrying on their conversation with laughs and hand gestured until the waiter comes again to take their plates away and present them with the bill. 

“We should probably clear out, huh?” 

James nods in agreement. “Want to grab a drink?”

The question almost surprised James himself more than Jamie, and it came as a surprise to them both when Jamie replied in the affirmative. 

“I know a bar near here, it’s walking distance,” Jamie offers. 

“Sounds good to me.”

The two of them talk over pints. Jamie takes out his phone to check the time part way through and cant help but laugh at the messages of concern from Mike. This prompts James to check his own phone, unsurprised at the similar texts from Ben. 

“I’ll get back to him later,” James says, putting his phone back away. 

“Don’t you think he’ll worry?” 

“Of course he’ll worry, it’s Ben we’re talking about here,” James replies, Jamie unused to him being snarky but with a stupid smile on his face. “Payback for lying to me.”

Jamie nods in agreement - not like he is going to reply to Mike straight away either. 

“So that show you mentioned -” 

“Firefly,” James interrupts. 

“Okay, okay, so, do you have it on dvd or anything?” 

“Did you want to come over and watch some?” 

Jamie smiles - that wide grin that ends in a laugh and makes James have to smile too. “I was going to ask to borrow it, but hey, if you’re keen.”

And that’s how the two of them end up sat on James’ couch, a bowl of popcorn between them as James hits play on the first episode of Firefly. Jamie is glad that he enjoys it and doesn’t need to lie to James and say he does - which he is 50% sure is what he would have ended up doing. 

“I should probably head off now, it’s getting a bit late,” Jamie says as the credits roll for the first episode. “I’ll catch another episode with you sometime though. Same time next week?” 

“It’s a date.” The words are out of James’ mouth before he realises what he’s saying. “I mean, it’s not a date, not that it can’t be a date, just. You know what I mean.”

It’s one of the first times that Jamie has seen James properly flustered, and for it to be over something like this rather than a recipe going miserably wrong makes it different anyway. 

“It’s okay,” Jamie says, resting a hand on James’ shoulder, the contact calming him. “I understand. Looking forward to it.” 

There’s a moment of eye contact, where James can feel Jamie’s hand and see the genuine smile on his face and feel a similar one on his own, and he feels himself glancing down at Jamie’s lips before brushing the idea away. Too much too soon would never end well, even if the look on Jamie’s face made it seem like he had had the same original thought. 

“See you on Monday.” 

Jamie nods, smile not dropping from his face as he leaves James flat. 

Jamie >> Mike  
that was low - thanks anyway

Mike >> Jamie  
u had a good night?

Jamie >> Mike  
not telling

Jamie can picture the laugh that that will give Mike, as much as it will also frustrate him. He spends his way home looking forward to seeing James again - a foreign experience for him. 

When Monday comes along, Barry, Ben, and Mike are pleased to say the least that the negative energy between James and Jamie is gone - Mike goes as far as to pat Barry on the back (when the others can’t see) to commend his plan. This feeling lasts through the day, and most of the week, until they realise that worse than the negative tension is a positive one. Smiles across the studio that leave both of them blushing, James not bothering to restrain himself from laughing at even the worst of Jamie’s jokes, and Jamie complimenting James’ recipe labs with far more enthusiasm than they deserve. All of it combined with Jamie and James not outright acknowledging the date they’d been on is enough to start to drive the others crazy. Friday comes around, after what feels like forever, and Barry is set on trying to resolve the tension again - he thinks it worked out well enough the last time. 

“Hey Jay,” he says, as the workday begins to come to a close. “Wanna come out for drinks tonight?” 

Jamie hesitates. “I have plans actually.” 

“Oh?” Barry asks, curiosity lighting up in his eyes. 

“Nothing exciting, Baz, don’t worry.” 

Barry, ever curious, can’t help but wonder if Jamie’s plans involve James at all. It’s not a question even he would get away with asking outright, and certainly not one he’d get a straight answer to, so he dances over it, walking over to where James is finishing clearing up the test kitchen. 

“Hey James.” He leans against the bench lazily as he talks. 

“Hey Baz, how’s it going?” 

“Yeah, not bad. Wanted to know if you wanted to get some drinks with me and the guys after work?” 

James bites his lip, either genuinely contemplating the question or committing to a good pretense that he is. “Is everyone going?”

“Jamie can’t make it,” Barry says with a shrug that he hopes comes off as casual and not staged. 

“I think I’m busy too, sorry,” he replies. “Next time?”

“Yeah, next time.”

Ben and Mike are luckily free, making it easier for Barry to share his newfound gossip. 

“I think James and Jamie are on a date right now,” he says. 

The looks on Mike and Ben’s faces show no surprise, which Barry supposes is fair. He continues anyway. 

“I asked them both out for drinks, and they both said they were busy, but James only admitted to it after I mentioned that Jay wasn’t gonna come.”

“Well let’s hope they’re getting their act together,” Mike says. “I don’t know how much longer I can put up with the heart eyes they’re giving each other at work.” 

“Let’s give them time,” Ben says. “I’m sure they’ll work it out.”

Barry finishes his mouthful of beer before talking. “Excuse me if I want them to work it out faster.”

Ben shrugs for a moment before nodding. “That’s fair.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Mike says, raising his own pint for a cheers. 

If James and Jamie are working things out, it’s to the tune of sharing a bowl of crisps and marathoning more tv than is probably reasonable for one night. It feels almost teenager-y, sneaking glances away from the tv screen to look at each other, small smiles coming to their faces as they do so, Jamie starting to sing along to the theme song once he’s seen enough episodes to get the gist of it. They watch more than they had been expecting to, James only noticing how long it had been when he glances up at the clock. 

“Shit, it’s been longer than I thought,” he says, pausing the episode that is just about to start. 

“Aw shit,” Jamie says, pushing himself up to his feet. “No wonder I’m so tired. Guess I should be going now.”

“Jay, you can crash here tonight if you want, get home once you’ve had a decent sleep.”

“Seriously? That’d be great. I can stay on the couch.”

After a brief moment of James offering to sleep on the couch instead, only for Jamie to point out that the shorter of them would definitely sleep at least a little more comfortably there, James goes to get blankets and pillows for Jamie. 

“Night James,” Jamie says as he starts to settle down. 

“G’night Jay.” 

It is admittedly not the most comfortable night’s sleep that Jamie has ever had - sleeping on a couch, no matter how nice the couch is, is never going to be ideal. What did make up for it was waking up to the smell of coffee and sound of James walking around the kitchen. 

“Want a coffee?” James offers as Jamie gets himself up off the couch. 

“Yes please,” Jamie says, almost redundantly, as if the look on his face and his nod didn’t make his answer immediately clear. 

They drink their coffees together, taking sips between conversation that increases in pace as the two of them become more awake. Eventually Jamie gets ready to leave, apologising for having to break the conversation up. 

“It’s okay,” James says. “See you on Monday?” 

Jamie nods, pulling James into a hug. It’s the most physical contact they’ve had, but it feels right. He pulls away after a moment and James looks at him, the thought of ‘now or never’ running through his brain as he glances down at Jamie’s lips. He goes for it. The kiss is both unexpected and obvious; it’s short and chaste until Jamie widens it, resting a hand on the back of James’ neck. When they break the kiss it feels like it had been going forever and not enough all at the same time. 

“See you Monday,” Jamie confirms as he walks out. 

They spend the weekend texting anyway, not throwing labels around except for the word ‘dating’, something that both of them can easily agree on. Between them they guessed that each of them turning down Barry’s offer of going out for drinks would make things obvious enough at the studio, but they did agree to keep it lowkey, nothing dramatic that would be likely to get stares. Monday came around, as it does, and when Jamie got to the office, James was already there in the kitchen, trying to work out a recipe. 

“All going well, James?” he asks as he walks over, leaning his elbows on an unoccupied area of bench to see what is going on without getting in the way. 

“Yeah, I think I’m down to my last test,” James replies, almost tangible excitement in his voice. 

At the questioning look on Jamie’s face, James elaborates. “Osso bucco, so I won’t know until later today how well it’s worked, but we’ll see.”

“I’m sure it’s great.” Jamie punctuates the statement with a kiss to James’ cheek that leaves him blushing, and has Barry - who had admittedly had been eavesdropping - averting his gaze. 

James gets his revenge when Jamie is sitting absorbed in his emails, headphones on. The osso bucco is slowly cooking away, leaving James free - once the kitchen is clean - to work on other things through the studio. His obvious response is to go to Jamie’s desk, getting his attention by leaning over and pressing a kiss to his temple, earning a surprised look from Jamie as he quickly takes his headphones off. 

“All good?” he asks, tilting his head up to look at James. 

“Mhm,” James hums in response. 

“Here we go,” Jamie says with a cheesy smile, leaning in for a kiss.

James is more than happy to reciprocate, resting a hand beneath Jamie’s chin to help angle the kiss. It lasts only a few moments - more soft and domestic than anything else. The pair of them have cheesy smiles on their faces when they break apart, both blushing slightly. 

“Was that all?” 

“Maybe,” James admits. “Are you complaining?”

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

The others get used to it, Jamie leaving James standing in the kitchen having to rack his brains for what to do after he’s been distracted by a kiss or caress of his arms, and Jamie sitting headphoneless at his desk, waiting a few moments after James has left before going back to the work he’s doing. It’s painfully cheesy to say the least, and hearing them talk about each other to no end, all high praise and wide smiles, can get tiring, but no more tiring than the complaints had been. 

They had been dating for a while before the word boyfriend even came into the conversation, and it wasn’t even mentioned first by James and Jamie themselves. The five of them had agreed to go out to a pub after work on a Wednesday, a quiet midweek evening to celebrate a new cookbook being well on the way to being released. Mike had gotten there late, to no one’s surprise, but no one was upset about it. What it did mean however, was that the fastest drinking and most lightweight among them - Barry - had gotten through more drinks than arguably appropriate for midweek. 

James goes to get another jug of water for the table and a refill for those of them that need them, making a point to shake his head at Barry’s request. 

“So Jay,” Barry says. “You must be pretty proud of your boyfriend?” 

Jamie doesn’t have time to process the question before he blurts out a “What?” 

“I mean, he did like, dare I say it, most of the recipe development, and it all worked out really well, and now it’s like, a full fucking cookbook.”

Jamie is grateful that Barry thinks the point of contention is the pride not the word used to refer to James. But come to think of it - is James his boyfriend? He files the thought away in a ‘to deal with later’ part of his brain and focuses on replying to Barry. A smile comes to his face as he does. 

“Yes,” he says with a nod. “Very proud.”

“What are you proud of?” James asks as he returns, setting the tray of pints and water jug on the table. 

Jamie smiles at him. “You.”

The rest of the night passes quietly, everyone eventually splitting off to go home. Jamie offers to walk James to his car, with the others taking a train home. They walk hand in hand, in happy silence. 

“You know what Barry said about you tonight?” Jamie asks.

“No? Nothing bad I hope.”

“Of course not. He called you my boyfriend.”

James stopped walking, the comment sending thoughts running through his head so quickly that he can’t think about it and walk at the same time. He turns to face Jamie. 

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t,” Jamie says. “I didn’t know what to say. We haven’t talked about that, and I hardly wanted the first conversation of what we are to be between me and Baz.” 

That gets a slight chuckle out of James, breaking him from his reverie as he gives a nod. 

“That’s fair. Do you, I mean, do you want to talk about what we are?” The question comes out as hesitant and uncertain, as though James is worried about the whole thing for the first time. 

“Well, we’re dating, there’s that right, and, I guess we could be boyfriends?”

“Jamie Spafford, are you asking me to be your boyfriend?” James asks the question in mock surprise, placing a hand over his chest, getting him a swat over the head from a sheepish Jamie. 

“You know what I mean.”

James nods, more serious, but cheeky smile still on his face. “My question still stands. And if it counts for anything, I’d love for you to be mine.”

Jamie smiles, a wide one that seems to hit his eyes before it hits his mouth. “Sounds good to me.” 

They walk hand in hand again the rest of the way to James’ car, neither able to shake the smiles from their faces. They arrive, and Jamie gets ready to leave - he needs to get to a train station to get himself home before it gets too late in the evening. 

“See you tomorrow, boyfriend?” he tacks the last word on as though testing the water, looking at James to gauge his reaction. 

Predictably, James shakes his head, smile still on his face. “That’s so cheesy.”

Jamie nods in agreement. “It is,” he says, before leaning in for a brief kiss. “But you love it.”

“I do.” James nods, and as Jamie turns around to leave, he speaks again, “I love you.”

“Love you too.”


End file.
